1. Technical Field:
The present invention relates in general to improved data processing systems and in particular to improvements in data manipulation within a data processing system. Still more particularly the present invention relates to improvements in multi-dimensional scrolling of displayed data within a data processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art:
The manipulation of data in a data processing system is well known in the prior art. Data may be manipulated in many ways in a modern state-of-the-art data processing system including: data accessing; data encoding; data communications; data compression; data conversion; data entry; data exchange; data filing; data linking; data locking; data manipulation; data mapping; data modeling; data processing; data recording; data sorting; and data transferring. The large amounts of data which are available to the user of a modern state-of-the-art data processing system often become overwhelming in magnitude and complexity.
As a result of the increasing complexity of data processing systems attempts have been made to simplify the interface between a user and the large amounts of data present within a modern data processing system. One example of an attempt to simplify the interface between a user and a data processing system is the utilization of a so-called Graphical User Interface (GUI) to provide an intuitive and graphical interface between the user and the data processing system. The Common User Access (CUA) user interface is one example of such a Graphical User Interface. Common User Access is a trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation. The Common User Access (CUA) user interface is often utilized to organize and present large amounts of data to a user in a graphical and intuitive manner.
One technique for presenting a list of objects or settings choices to a user wherein multiple objects may be selected is the utilization of the so-called "List Box." A List Box is typically utilized to display a list of settings choices or objects in which the number of choices or objects may vary. A List Box generally displays the settings choices or objects in an order that is meaningful to the user, such as alphabetic order, numeric order, chronological order or some other order. For example, modem baud rates are often displayed in numeric order. Typically such List Boxes are large enough to display a plurality of choices, such as six or eight, and such boxes often include vertical or horizontal scroll bars, if the data is too large to be entirely visible within the List Box.
A scroll bar is a known user interface component which is associated with a scrollable area of a display that indicates to a user that more information is available and may be added in a particular direction with respect to the display. A scroll bar may be utilized to scroll additional data into view and a scroll bar typically includes a scroll box, a shaft and scroll buttons.
Another relatively recent advance in the computer arts allows a user to simultaneously access, display and manipulate data from a variety of related and/or unrelated computer application programs. This process is generally referred to as "multi-tasking." In a true multi-tasking system, several application programs are active simultaneously. Displays from each of these applications may be provided within a two-dimensional display system by presenting overlapping data collections in multiple layers in a simulated three-dimensional manner within a data processing system. Each of these layers presents data associated with a particular data collection and these layers typically overlap and may partially or completely obscure each other and the data therein. There are, however, certain inherent problems in most such multi-tasking systems. In order to reach data which the user desires to manipulate, a user must often follow a different and sometimes complicated procedure for each application program and, within each program, at each level of data type, such as file, page, or word, which the user attempts to access. Consequently, the user faces a loss of time due to the number of keystrokes necessary simply to obtain a visual image of a particular data collection in such an overlapping simulated three-dimensional display.
Thus, those skilled in the data-processing art will appreciate that while simple lists of objects or settings choices or overlapping windows may be displayed in a Graphical User Interface, the types of data which are displayable within such a scrollable list are typically limited to a simple column of possible choices or objects and, in more complex data collections such as those which may be displayed within a window, the techniques necessary to visually access that data are often complex and time consuming.
Therefore, it should be apparent that a need exists for a method and system which permits multi-dimensional scrolling of displayed data collections within a data processing system.